Coal prices News

Power tariff is likely to increase by 8-10 percent in the country after Coal India decided to hike the commodity's prices, Tata Power CEO and Managing Director Anil Sardana has said.

 Amid sluggish demand, Coal India is facing dilemma over the production and finding it difficult to further stock the fuel, even as the PSU major is not keen to rationalise prices and rather looks at methods to boost sales to keep weak subsidiaries in profit.

The steady and sharp fall in coal prices has knocked down shares of big mining companies like BHP Billiton, Glencore and Rio Tinto, and it has seen many financers exit the sector.

The government wants state-run CIL to keep coal prices low for cheaper power tariff, a top official said on Thursday.

Coal prices in Asia are already at levels that have forced some producers to curb supply and are unlikely to fall more than another $10, industry officials said on Tuesday.

The firms raised prices of lower-grade coal by 10 yuan per tonne in mid-May, anticipating a surge in demand for power over the summer.

The domestic steel players producing steel through the blast furnace route stand to benefit from the continuing weakness in the international coking coal prices, but iron ore continues to play spoilsport for the Indian steel industry, rating agency ICRA has said.

Falling prices of crude oil, thermal coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) are huge positive for India as energy imports account for 36 percent of its total imports last fiscal, research firm Crisil Research said here.